Come to Bromley and see the Lego time machine

28 June 2016 Rob Buckley Events, Film, UK TV 8 Comments

It has to be said there’s not a lot to come and look at in my (current) home of Bromley, SE London. There’s the Churchill Theatre, if you happen to like a lot of musicals and murder-mysteries. But that’s about it. Tourists – do not come here.

However, look what’s just showed up in the Intu (sic) shopping centre (formerly ‘The Glades’):

Yes, it’s HG Wells’ Time Machine fashioned out of Lego! Or at least a version of the version of HG Wells’ Time Machine featured in the 1960 movie The Time Machine.

Why? Well, HG Wells was born here. There’s even a blue plaque on the TK Maxx (formerly Allders) in the high street.

Of course, we used to have a mural to HG Wells in the High Street, featuring the three-legged Martian war machines from War of the Worlds.

Bromley's old HG Wells mural

That’s now been replaced by a mural of Charles Darwin, who used to live here. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s because that’s not actually a three-leggged HG Wells Martian war machine, but a Tripod from the BBC adaptation of John Christopher’s The Tripods.

Oh, Bromley…

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  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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